On the Coins of Uriconium

Abstract

This paper investigates for the first time the imagery of the octagonal crossing-tower at Ely Cathedral, attempting a reconstruction of the original programme in the light of newly-discovered sculptural fragments and antiquarian drawings. The scheme is shown to have been extremely sophisticated, articulated through a variety of media, including wall-paintings, stained glass and sculpture in stone and wood. The relationship between Ely and Westminster is touched upon and the view of recent research that there was a much closer connexion between works executed at the Court and those in the provinces than had formerly been supposed is supported by the discovery of an Ely model for some of the wall-paintings in the palatine chapel of St Stephen, hitherto seen as rather isolated in mid fourteenth-century England. The iconography of the Octagon's imagery and its original place within the great architectural works then being undertaken at Ely is also analysed, and it is suggested that the man responsible for drawing up the Octagon's programme was the monastic sacrist, Alan of Walsingham.